Recent Advances in Tornado Research and Prediction: Year In Review 2012

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In 2012 two principal scientific questions about tornadoes continued to puzzle meteorologists. The first considered how and why tornadoes form (tornadogenesis), and the second concerned details of their internal structure, particularly with respect to the variations in wind speed and wind direction near the ground. To answer these questions, meteorologists expanded the use of Doppler radars, which track the component of wind motion along the radar beam in echoes associated with tornadoes by noting the differences between the radar’s transmitted and return frequencies. (Actually, signal processing involves estimating the rate at which the phase difference between the transmitted and backscattered radiation varies with time.) This process is used to map tornado wind fields and the wind fields of their parent storms during tornadogenesis and those of similar-looking storms that do not produce tornadoes. In addition, several significant improvements in the tracking and forecasting of tornadoes have been made.

A large tornado touched down in rural north-central Oklahoma on April 14, 2012. This twister was …

Since the early 2000s, meteorologists and other scientists investigating tornadoes have made significant advances in tornado observation, theory, and prediction. During the spring storm seasons of 2009 and 2010, a major field experiment, VORTEX2 (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2) was conducted in the Great Plains of the U.S. VORTEX2 involved an armada of instruments. The instruments used included mobile Doppler radars, a mobile Doppler lidar, instrumented vehicles, probes, weather balloons, cameras, and a small remotely controlled unmanned aircraft—which were deployed within and near supercells (long-lived convective storms containing strong rotating storm-scale updrafts; historically, supercells have produced the strongest tornadoes.) VORTEX2 was complemented by smaller, more limited field experiments carried out during other years. In the spring of 2011, for example, record numbers of tornadoes struck the eastern and southern U.S., with some having documented wind speeds in excess of 100 m per second (223.7 mph). Such strong tornadoes, classified as EF5 storms, even passed through highly populated areas, such as Tuscaloosa, Ala. Mobile Doppler radar data were collected in some of the large tornadoes that occurred during the period.

Since the late 1990s, theoretical knowledge about tornadoes has been enhanced through the use of numerical models, especially large-eddy simulation (LES) models that attempt to characterize the turbulent airflow of tornadoes. Some researchers have attempted to increase tornado-prediction accuracy through improvements to numerical cloud models that incorporate real-time meteorological observations and operational Doppler radar data.

Tornado formation occurs in a matter of tens of seconds, and “rapid-scan” Doppler radars that survey a tornado’s parent storm every 5–20 seconds have become one of the primary tools for increasing the scientific understanding of tornadogenesis. Most of these radars make partial use of phased-array technology, where the outgoing radar beam is scanned electronically and transmitted in many directions at once, and the incoming, backscattered radiation is also monitored via electronic scanning. This process is faster than the older, mechanical techniques that require the physical movement of an antenna to direct the beam. Another less-expensive type of rapid-scan radar (which still uses a mechanical process and thus scans at a slower rate) was introduced in 2011. Pulses from this radar are sent out at a number of slightly different frequencies, which facilitates the rapid rotation of the antenna. Meteorologists contend that this technique also allows for the collection of enough independent samples to make accurate measurements, even in the case of polarimetric variables (which help meteorologists understand the polarization state of electromagnetic fields, such as those produced by radars) that have been backscattered by radars off clouds and precipitation. Data collected from polarimetric radars have allowed researchers to distinguish between the different types of scatterers (such as hail, ice crystals, insects, dust, and large and small raindrops) in the storm.

The Doppler weather radar at the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Green Bay, …

The use of rapid-scan radars has revealed that in a few well-documented cases of tornadogenesis, the tornado began near the ground and developed upward with time. Prior to these rapid-scan observations, it was thought that many tornadoes formed aloft and developed downward toward the ground. Some studies using radars that collect data more slowly supported the notion of downward-building tornadoes; however, this was later determined to be the result of the radar’s having a temporal resolution (measurement precision relative to time) that was far too low, or coarse, to represent what was actually happening.

Polarimetric radar data have allowed meteorologists to detect debris lofted by and moving within tornadoes. These data have helped meteorologists determine whether a Doppler wind signature indicating a strong vortex is actually a tornado inflicting damage. In addition, there are different signatures that are suggestive of particle-size sorting. Such signatures have occurred just ahead of a tornado and its parent “mesocyclone” (a rapidly rotating air mass within a thunderstorm), and the differences between the radar signatures of several particles and different forms of precipitation—including water droplets lofted by intense updrafts, hailstones (which tumble as they fall), and large raindrops (which flatten as they fall)—have been discerned.

Mobile Doppler radars with high spatial resolution (finely detailed measurements with respect to space) have been used to probe tornadoes since the early 1990s, noting the presence of echo holes (phenomena that signify tornadic circulation). In one study a weak-echo hole was found in an EF5 tornado that extended in a column almost to the top of the parent supercell. (This tornado destroyed much of Greensburg, Kan., on May 4, 2007.) The study revealed that the centrifuging (spinning separation) of the various scatterers was probably responsible for the weak-echo hole near the ground; however, the question of why the weak-echo column extended so high up remained unclear.

Since the early 2000s, networks of mobile Doppler radars have been used to describe the three-dimensional wind field and its evolution in supercell storms. In the most complete, integrated dataset to date from the VORTEX2 study, it was found that the main source of low-level rotation for the parent mesocyclone in a tornadic supercell was along the southern side of the forward-flank region of precipitation, where there was a horizontal gradient of temperature. It was also found that the descent of a core of heavy precipitation aided the amplification of the low-altitude mesocyclone in an unknown way.

Theories of tornadogenesis have involved both the way a low-altitude mesocyclone is produced in a parent supercell and the way a tornado forms within the parent supercell or a mesocyclone. Results from recent LES-controlled experiments suggested that understanding how the low-altitude mesocyclone interacts with the ground (that is, within the planetary boundary layer, or lowest part of the troposphere, where the effects of the ground are felt) was critical in determining the ultimate intensity of the vortex. It was shown that the ring of air that characterizes the mesocyclone’s angular momentum must contract as small as possible so that a strong vortex can develop. This analysis made use of the assumption that angular momentum was conserved. At the same time, it was discovered that an outward-directed centrifugal force acts to limit the inward extent of excursions (that is, movement toward the centre) of the ring of constant angular momentum as it contracts. The intensity of the vortex was shown to be greatest when the ratio of the radius of maximum wind within the mesocyclone aloft to the thickness of the planetary boundary layer (in which air is flowing radially inward at lower altitudes) falls within some range indicating that the mesocyclone can be sustained aloft. The results of these studies suggested that meteorologists still need to develop a better understanding of the tornado boundary layer (the 100-m [about 330-ft] layer nearest to the ground that experiences friction with the surface), which is difficult to both observe and measure.

When a tornado vortex signature (TVS)—that is, the radar image indicative of a tornado—is identified, a short-term tornado warning may be issued to the public, given the high likelihood that the vortex may be correlated with a real tornado. A radar beam, however, spreads as it travels out from the radar, and it rises higher above the ground with increasing distance owing to Earth’s curvature. Thus, TVSs are not resolved near the ground at distances far from the radar. To improve the ability to observe vortices and other meteorological phenomena occurring at low elevations over broad areas, networks of tower-mounted low-power Doppler radars were first employed in 2007 to detect the vortices that are otherwise undetected by beam radars.

Despite these improvements, as of 2012 it remained nearly impossible to predict the locations of tornadoes much in advance with any skill. Attempts have been made, however, to predict the probability of tornadoes’ occurring within a specified area up to an hour or two in advance of a storm’s arrival, using numerical simulations that explicitly model convective storms. Some models have been made to run hourly, so short-term updates that consider the extent and intensity of convective storms and whether they contain supercell characteristics have become available in the U.S. in the past few years. In other models the probability of precipitation’s coming from convective storms in a particular location is estimated by generating an ensemble of forecasts derived from slight changes, or perturbations, made to the model’s variables. Perturbations allow the model to mimic the uncertainty in the observational data and represent the fact that small changes in the initial conditions of the model’s parameters may lead to substantial changes in the model’s individual forecasts. In addition, some simulations are run with different modeling schemes for precipitation, radiation, land-surface interactions, and boundary layer physics. The ensemble of forecasts allows for the development of a range of data from which the statistical probability of tornado development can be calculated. This advancement, called a “warn-on-forecast,” differs from the practice of issuing warnings based only on observer reports and radar data.

Although the meteorological community has made several advances in observing, understanding, and predicting tornadoes since the early 2000s, several challenges remain. In addition, the ability to probe tornadoes with equipment capable of collecting data at high spatial resolution and with rapid update times in order to better understand the behaviour of the tornado boundary layer still remained elusive in 2012. It was hoped that improved numerical models with more realistic parameterizations of physical processes involving cloud and radiation physics, improved ways of assimilating real-time data into the models, and larger and faster computers that permit higher spatial resolution and greater numbers of forecasts would enable meteorologists and other scientists to better predict future tornadoes.